Afghan DM Defends Requesting US Attack on MSF Hospital Full of Civilians

Afghan Defense Minister Masoom Stanekzai appears to be a few days behind the Pentagon on the ever-changing narrative surrounding the US attack on the Doctors Without Borders (MSF) hospital outside of Kunduz, Afghanistan, an attack which killed 22 civilians and fueled calls for a war crimes investigation.

MSF insists that the attack was deliberate, and while the Pentagon has changed their story several times the Afghan officials who ordered the strike seem to confirm that it was a deliberate attack on a known hospital, which US troops were engaged in surveillance against at the time.

Stanekzai also gave lip-service to rumors of a Pakistani spy being inside the hospital at the time of the attack, suggesting that the site may have been a “Pakistani ISI base” as opposed to a Taliban base, suggesting he was a little vague on what he was actually alleging.

MSF says none of their staff were from Pakistan, and they have no evidence any of the patients were either. US officials have suggested a single “target” within the hospital wouldn’t have justified the attack at any rate, which is only adding to questions about the incident.

Stanekzai seems to be following the long-standing playbook of the Afghan government, which is to never admit wrongdoing, and to stick to any story, no matter how uncredible it becomes. With the US having been brought into the center of this one, and engaging in their own questionable efforts at damage control, the farce is only growing, and along with it, support for an independent investigation, which is likely the only way any truth is going to come out of this fiasco.

Thus, it was the Afghan government, and not the Pentagon, which called for the attack. A step forward. Now, we need to know if the local US commander was aware of the "restriction". Equally, the building is so large, it's unlikely that MSF was using all of it, probably not more then one of the four wings, so the presence of a Taliban or Pakistani base in one of the other wings is perfectly credible. As usual, whats noteworthy is what MSF isn't saying. It denies only that any Pakistanis were on its staff. It also doesn't deny that some parts of the building were being used by other people, with its knowledge, for non-humanitarian purposes. It also still hasn't told us exactly what flags it was flying. Logically, it should have been the Red Cross flag but that is permitted only if the entire building was being used for humanitarian purposes. MSF needs to tell the whole story and its selective and grudging telling inevitably arouses suspicion that it was aware of, and turned a blind eye to, the use of the hospital and a safe cover for other activities. An independent investigation would thus be a good idea. As for the Afghan government never admiting wrongdoing, and sticking to any story, no matter how incredible it becomes, they have clearly spent too much time reading articles on the American internet!

Where are the leakers when you need them the most? For the UN was created to expedite Empire expansion, surely and there is no organism of man's government that can overcome the corruption embodied in a rich man's anarchy called Empire USA.